NGO's: the trojan horse for market, corporate and state power?

 David Harvey in his book A Short History of Neoliberalism:

The rise of advocacy groups and NGOs has...accompanied the neoliberal turn and increased spectacularly since 1980 or so. The NGOs have in many instances stepped into the vacuum in social provision left by the withdrawal of the state from such activities. This amounts to privatization by NGO. In some instances, this has helped accelerate further state withdrawal from social provision. NGOs thereby function as "Trojan horses for neoliberal globalization."

 Mike Davis in The Planet of Slums:

Third World NGOs have proven brilliant at co-opting local leadership as well as hegemonizing the social space traditionally occupied by the Left. Even if there are some celebrated exceptions--such as the militant NGOs so instrumental in creating the World Social Forums--the broad impact of the NGO/"civil society revolution"...has been to bureaucratize and deradicalize urban social movements.

Honoring those who work for a better world

French film Director Bertrand Tavernier's  film It All Starts Today  is a beautiful testament to the commitment and humanity of teachers (and other front line workers) who work with families and children suffering the consequences of neo-liberal market  and economic "reform". 

Like Pierre Bourdieu's  book The Weight of the World: Social Suffering in Contemporary Society  Tavernier's film documents the new forms of social suffering that characterize not just French society, but the economies and societies of the western world.

Tavernier's deeply moving film tells the story of a kindergarten teacher in an impoverished region of France struggling to educate children of families devastated by unemployment, grinding poverty, deprivation, depression and economic hardship. These are children whose families are the casualties of neo-liberal market reform and economic and corporate restructuring.

The film shows the heroics and dedication of teachers, education aides, volunteers, health workers and social welfare workers who give themselves fully and devote their lives to improving the well being of the children and families in their care. They do this despite poor pay and appalling conditions, budget cutbacks and hostility, indifference and neglect from elected officials, politicians, some government agencies and workers, business groups and those who hold power.

 In Australia we accord little respect and honor to those front line workers and volunteers who work for a better world. We forget and ignore the teachers, child care workers, teachers aides, carers, aged care and disability workers, social welfare workers, aboriginal health workers, volunteers, family support workers, refuge workers, domestic violence counselors and millions of  other front line welfare and community workers who dedicate themselves to the care and well being of others, and who through their efforts make our society and communities better places.


Instead they are poorly paid and usually berated and stigmatized, labeled as do-gooders and bleeding hearts, or dismissed as rent seeking, vested interests who breed dependency and a welfare mentality in people.

No, in Australia we honor soldiers who fight in imperial wars, celebrities caught in the glare of their own importance, sportsmen who are paid exorbitantly and businessmen and corporations who pursue and accumulate wealth and power at the expense of the common good.

Jim Johnson has taken up a similar theme in a recent post on his excellent blog Notes on Politics, Theory and Biography and I thank him for his insights:

"I find it obsequious and cloying to hear the radio show hosts and politicians offering a "Thank you for your service" whenever they encounter a veteran or military personnel. What about the social workers and parole officers and teachers and, yes, scientists and artists, who work in underpaid professions for years and decades in order to contribute to a better world? After all, they could be out there peddling sub-prime mortgages (or some other form of snake oil) and making real money. When was the last time you heard someone - anyone - publicly thank those folks for their service? No, instead we are taking aim at them (the teachers and parole officers are, after all members of those dastardly public sector unions) in the misguided quest for fiscal responsibility"

Why we should be skeptical about "social enterprise"

The concept of social enterprise has found its way into the centre of debates about the future of the not- for-profit sector in Australia and is viewed as a policy panacea for the sector.

Here in West Australia, the Barnett Government's Economic Audit Committee, which has been accepted and endorsed by large segments of the WA not-for-profit sector, has a vision to make all not-for-profits into social enterprises.

A UK study by the Third Sector Research Centre shows why we should be deeply skeptical of claims about social enterprise. The UK study found that social enterprise approaches are poorly defined, and they exclude black and ethnic minority groups as well as small not for profits that serve disadvantaged groups and communities.

The dominance of big powerful NGOs

Despite their rhetoric about the importance of the not-for profit, non-government sector, the reality is that Federal and State Government policy and funding is predominately biased towards large corporate and business oriented NGO's. 

When it comes to shaping public policy, attracting public funding or winning large contracts there is an inherent bias towards larger more influential NGO's and to certain powerful service provider interests.

As Gavin Mooney points out, in the health sector it is always the  interests and the voice of the medical profession and the powerful bodies that represent them, who dominate public policy making and shape funding distribution. Mooney points out that in current debates about the direction of primary health care policy in Australia, smaller community based health NGO's, such as the Aboriginal community controlled health sector, which has strong links into Aboriginal communities and represents and advocates for Aboriginal people, are being marginalized

This piece appeared in Crikey and we acknowledge Crikey as the source.

Are Medicare Locals Entrenching Institutional Racism

by Gavin Mooney*

A few years ago, together with two Aboriginal colleagues, I wrote about institutional racism in the Australian health care system.

In the last few months, reading some of the documentation around on the new Medicare Locals (or Primary Health Care Organisations -- PHCOs) from the Department of Health and Aging, the Minister and the Australian General Practice Network (AGPN), it is evident that today such institutional racism is alive and well.

Indeed it is being built into the future of these PHCOs. In the current discussions on primary health care for the future in this country, the Aboriginal community controlled sector and its voice are being ignored.

The concern of that sector at not being invited to be engaged adequately in deliberations about the PHCOs is reflected in a recent media release here in the west from the Aboriginal Health Council of WA. That states, for example: "We are alarmed that there has been so little effort made by the minister and the Divisions of General Practice to involve our sector."

I do not think this is sour grapes on their part. I share that view. The views of the Aboriginal community controlled sector are not being sought and not being heard by the Minister, by the department or by the AGPN.

The reason? The new PHCOs are being seen as just bigger if fewer GP Divisions, with a few bells and whistles (which have been forced to be?) added on. This is reflected in the fact that all 15 of the new PHCOs are to be GP Divisions-based and according to the recent discussion paper from the department on Medicare Locals the rest will be "largely" Divisions-based.

In her speech to the APGN Forum in Perth 10 days ago this Divisions-focus was confirmed by the Minister.

As one example (but there are many) in that speech, she stated that her department was engaging consultants "to develop a funding formula that will enable funding for Medicare Locals to be fairly distributed, taking into account the needs of different parts of Australia".

According to the Minister the only body that the government will consult "before finalising the funding formula" is … the AGPN! No others seemingly and certainly no mention of consulting the Aboriginal community controlled sector on this funding formula.

But then, as the funding formula, according to the Minister, is to take into account only differences geographically ("the needs of different parts of Australia") and there is no mention of the differing cultural needs of Australians, such as the special cultural needs of Aboriginal Australians, then maybe she feels no need to run the funding formula past the community controlled sector.

The discussion document is similarly neglectful of the community controlled sector.

Yes, it lists that sector as one of several with appropriate "skill-sets" that "complement those offered by the Divisions of General Practice Network". But where is the recognition beyond "skill-sets" of the need to embrace the cultural base of the community controlled sector? Where is the acknowledgment that AMSs already often have the breadth of primary care that Divisions currently lack and which PHCOs are being asked to embrace?

It is noteworthy that the AGPN has set out some good principles, including on equity and on Aboriginal health, in its ‘blueprint document’ on PHCOs.

It is most unfortunate, however, that when AGPN comes to the operational end of things, as in its paper on a framework for PHCOs, both equity and Aboriginal issues are sadly neglected. When push comes to shove, the principles in the AGPN blueprint document thus turn out to be empty rhetoric.

There is still time for Minister Roxon and for AGPN to think again.

There remains a wonderful opportunity to build an exciting, fair and inclusive primary care sector in Australia. This needs to start with the idea of caring for patients and their health, sharing the vision with all relevant parties, including the Aboriginal community controlled sector, and embracing more firmly both equity and the social determinants of health.

Indeed I’d like to switch the letters round and have PHCOs become COPHs -- Caring Organisations for People’s Health, even if not in name at least in principle and practice.

I suspect that is what Australian citizens want. It is just a pity they are not being asked.

*Gavin Mooney is a health economist with an honorary appointment at the University of Sydney

Making protest visible: Public protest as a vehicle for ethical and moral action

Public protest is one outlet for citizens to express deeply held moral and ethical commitments. Protest actions provide people with a way to address critical moral and social questions and confront the injustices, small and big, that they see around them. Protest actions are are a vehicle for ethical visions and creative ideas for a better future.

All over Western Australia this week ordinary citizens participated in public protest actions.

The photo on the left is from one of these protest actions, a rally organized by the Human Rights Alliance in the Perth CBD to protest against Government law and order policies and the misuse of tasers and force against Aboriginal people in custody

On Tuesday this week environmental groups, Aboriginal groups, unions and civil society groups protested outside BHP's Perth Annual General Meeting  against BHP and the Barnett Government's plans to make WA a major nuclear mining

In the Kimberley a small group of protesters blockaded access roads to prevent Woodside rig contractors from drilling drill on the site of the proposed James Price Point gas plant. A large protest rally against the industrialization of the Kimberley will take place in Cottesloe on the 28th November.

As a reminder of the importance of public protests, big and small, the UK Guardian has run a series of photographs of important protest events in world history. I was particularly taken with this photo taken during the 1968 Prague Spring.

Civil society rising in the UK and Europe

In London this week 50,000 students protested against education cuts by the Conservative- Liberal coalition Government.

Media reports in Australia have focused only on the occupation of the Conservative Party headquarters and, unsurprisingly for the corporate media, have largely ignored the larger story. All over Europe there is rising militancy by civil society groups against government  imposed austerity measures.

As Nina Powers points out in this piece in The Guardian the 52,000 students who protested in London display the real meaning of "The Big Society" that David Cameron claims he wants to promote. But Cameron's vision is an illusion. The Tories and Liberal Democrats want to destroy that part of civil society that resists and protests, and  holds governments and the corporate and business elite to account.

In her Guardian piece Nina Powers writes:

The protest as a whole was extremely important, not just because of the large numbers it attracted, and shouldn't be understood simply in economic terms as a complaint against fees. It also represented the serious anger many feel about cuts to universities as they currently stand, and the ideological devastation of the education system if the coalition gets its way. It was a protest against the narrowing of horizons; a protest against Lib Dem hypocrisy; a protest against the increasingly utilitarian approach to human life that sees degrees as nothing but "investments" by individuals, and denies any link between education and the broader social good.

The protesters - students and others - who occupied Tory HQ will no doubt continue to be condemned in the days to come. But their anger is justified: the coalition government is ruining Britain for reasons of ideological perversity. The protests in France and Greece and the student occupations here, such as the recent takeover of Deptford Town Hall by Goldsmiths students on the day cuts were announced, are indicators of a new militancy

Civil society organisations lead the fight against the "industrialisation" of the Kimberley

While large not-for-profit organisations dominate the headlines (and the funding), here in Western Australia it is small civil society groups and not-for-profit organisations that lead the struggle for environmental, economic, racial and social justice. 

There is no better example than the current campaign to oppose and challenge  the Barnett Government 's plans to industrialise the Kimberley.

Small civil society groups, Aboriginal organisations and individual citizen activists lead the fight against the proposed $30 billion liquified natural processing plant (gas hub) at James Price Point in the Kimberley and Barnett Government plans to industrialise the Kimberley region. James Price Point is on the Dampier Peninsula, 60km from the town of Broome, on land subject to native title claim. The proposed hub is being developed by Woodside Petroleum and its consortium partners including Shell, BP and Chevron.

When he came to power in 2008 Premier Colin Barnett revoked a process already in place to select a site. Barnett also removed the Indigenous veto over the site and threatened to compulsory acquire the land if Aboriginal people did not agree to his plan.

The Kimberley Land Council, acting on behalf of Traditional Owners, signed an Agreement with Woodside Petroleum and the State Government in 2009 which gave in principle approval to the plant on the basis of an Indigenous Land Use agreement which would deliver economic and financial benefit to the Traditional owners and the KLC. However, not all Aboriginal claimants accepted or agreed with the KLC's Agreement and when they were unable to resolve their differences, the Barnett Government moved to compulsory acquire the land for the site, regardless of Aboriginal wishes.

Aboriginal people are divided on the issue and how it will impact on the community. Some support the proposed gas hub, but oppose the Barnett Government's compulsory acquisition of land.  Others oppose the James Price Point gas hub, as well as broader plans by the Barnett Government and large mining and resource companies to "industrialise" the Kimberley and have pursued legal action in Federal and State courts to prevent the development.

Environmentalists and citizens are concerned that the gas hub will be the beginning of the end for the Kimberley as a wilderness area and is part of Barnett Government plans to industralise the Kimberley, as has occurred in the Pilbara and the Midwest.

Opposition to the gas hub and the compulsory acquisition of land has galvanized a coalition of Aboriginal groups and Aboriginal leaders, local, state and national environment and conservation groups, local residents and concerned West Australians.

On October 16th an estimated 2500 citizens marched though the streets of Broome to rally and protest against the proposed gas precinct and Barnett Government plans to compulsorily acquire over 20,000 hectares of land at James Price Point, some of which is currently subject of native title claim. This is despite Premier Barnett's claims that the gas precinct will only be 3500 hectares in size (2500 hectares of land and 1000ha of marine area).

The WA Environmental Defenders Office, a small community legal service, is representing Aboriginal elder Joseph Roe in a legal action in the WA Supreme Court against Woodside to prevent it clearing vegetation at James Price Point.

Woodside was granted the clearing permit by the WA Government before the completion of the required environmental assessment process. Woodside claims that it needs to clear the vegetation to test the availability of ground water for the Project. Aboriginal laweman Joseph Roe argues that Woodside and the State Government have acted illegally and are clearing vegetation on a site that has cultural significance.